How nature can give you fresh eyes with Laurence McCahill

Laurence has been reading the book Nature Fix recently and it inspired him to write a post on our Medium publication entitled Hiking The Therapy Trail Where Life and Work Meet. If you’d like to have read go to http://ahappy.link/read.

He says that it backs up what we intrinsically know. That when we lose ourselves in nature time stands still and we learn to behave more generously to ourselves and one another. We use our senses fully and become much more present to our surroundings. This helps us to open up, let our guard down and connect with each other on a deeper level.

At our latest Alptitude retreat this story played out once again. According to one of our alumni “we’re pioneers in the art of igniting collective inspiration, support and trust, magically between strangers”. This doesn’t happen by accident. It takes careful design, curation, hosting and collaboration to create the conditions for nature to weave its magic.

Just over two weeks since we came back from the Alps I reflect with Laurence about how it went and why we need these times in nature. Things we cover are:

• Listen to your body for the early warning signals
• People don’t value enough the idea of stopping
• It’s almost more important to take time out when you can’t or when you don’t feel like you can’t because usually the time you need it the most
• It’s counter-cultural to step off the treadmill
• Most people believe that working hard is the best way to solve a problem
• When our bodies aren’t working properly and our minds aren’t clear enough we’re going to be less effective
• To make the shift happen we need to stop
• Changing your environment and spending time in nature can change your perspective on the way you work
• When you’re not close to something you can view it with fresh eyes and propose different approaches
• Put fun at the heart of what you do, or why do it?
• It’s important to have a constant reminder of the values the core of what you do
• Focus on what you need and connect with others with similar needs
• It’s so important to integrate the whole of yourself in what you do
• Leading a simple life is about focussing on our intrinsic motivations and core needs
• What are the positive things to simplify our lives and so benefit the planet?
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From Friday 13th to Sunday 15th of September we’re hosting our Happy Startup Summercamp. While we know that strictly isn’t summer the event also isn’t just for startups.

At its core Summercamp about learning, play and friendship.

We want to promote personal growth in business.

We advocate holding our work lightly so that we can be more creative.

And we know that we can’t create impact on our own. We need to work with others that give us energy and support.

As well as inspirational talks we’ve got activities and experiences such as Blingo Bingo, Botannical Brewmaking, Yoga, Mindful raving, saunas, hot tubs, lake swimming, japanese swordfighting, chi-gung breathing and dancing (lots of dancing).

To find out more about Summercamp go to http://happystartupsummer.camp

Business doesn’t have to be boring. And it definitely shouldn’t be lonely. I hope you can join us in September.